Cummings accuses Issa of “McCarthyism” just before Issa accuses Cummings of possible collusion with the IRS

posted at 6:01 pm on April 9, 2014 by Erika Johnsen

Darrell Issa and Elijah Cummings, House Oversight Committee chairman and ranking Democrat, respectively, aren’t exactly known for their intra-party camaraderie, especially seeing as how Cummings has continually derided the ongoing investigation into the IRS’s scandalous targeting of conservative groups as nothing more than a hyper-partisan fishing expedition — but this just got real.

Funnily enough, just this morning Cummings’ office released a report that seems to focus mainly on comparing Issa’s investigative activities to those of the late Sen. Joe McCarthy as a similarly “disgraceful stain on our nation’s history”:

As Issa, a California Republican and the Oversight chairman, pushes for former IRS official Lois Lerner to be held in contempt for invoking her Fifth Amendment rights not to testify before the committee, Cummings’s office is releasing research Wednesday showing the majority of the previous times Congress took such a step were during McCarthy’s investigations.

“We oppose Chairman Issa’s efforts to recreate the Oversight Committee in Joe McCarthy’s image, and we reject his attempts to drag us back to that shameful era in which Congress tried to strip away the constitutional rights of American citizens under the bright lights of hearings that had nothing to do with responsible oversight and everything to do with the most dishonorable kind of partisan politics,” said the report for committee Democrats, which was released early to POLITICO Pro Tax.

Yes, most original. This afternoon, however, Issa sent a letter over to Cummings’ office containing some distinct questions about emails revealing Cummings’ past communications with the IRS, raising “concerns that that the IRS improperly shared protected taxpayer information with [Cummings'] staff” which “surreptitiously” coordinated with the agency to request that information, specifically about conservative organization True the Vote. Issa’s letter makes for some well-timelined and skim-able reading, and here’s NRO‘s summary:

E-mails unearthed in the course of Issa’s investigation into the IRS’ inappropriate targeting of right-leaning groups show that in August 2012, a member of Cummings’s staff contacted the IRS asking for any publicly available information on True the Vote. The matter was discussed by IRS officials including Lois Lerner, the former exempt organizations chief who retired in the wake of the targeting scandal. and one of Lerner’s deputies, Holly Paz, subsequently sent the organization’s 990 forms to Cummings and his staff. The correspondence does not indicate, however, whether the action the IRS took with relation to True the Vote was prompted by the request from Cummings’s office.

Nonetheless, Engelbrecht’s True the Vote received a letter from the IRS with inquiries that agency officials have testified were unprecedented in its scope. Cummings’s letter contained questions that closely mirrored those posed by the IRS, and Issa details them in his letter, strongly implying that one was modeled on the other.

Oh, snap. As Issa noted in his letter, Cummings has previously denied that his office “made any inquiries to the IRS” that “may have led to additional scrutiny,” and Issa just extended a very public invitation for Cummings to explain himself. In the meantime, the Lerner contempt vote is scheduled for tomorrow.

Blowback

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“We oppose Chairman Issa’s efforts to recreate the Oversight Committee in Joe McCarthy’s image, and we reject his attempts to drag us back to that shameful era in which Congress tried to strip away the constitutional rights of American citizens under the bright lights of hearings that had nothing to do with responsible oversight and everything to do with the most dishonorable kind of partisan politics,” said the report for committee Democrats, which was released early to POLITICO Pro Tax.

Hey, Elijah, what about the Constitutional rights of the groups targeted by the IRS?

This afternoon, however, Issa’s office sent a letter over to Cummings’ office with some their own report detailing some distinct questions about emails dating their past communications with the IRS, raising “concerns that that the IRS improperly shared protected taxpayer information with your staff” and “surreptitiously” coordinated with the agency to request that information about True the Vote, via NRO:

Another corrupt black DEMOCRAT politician. They seem to be as common as fleas on a dog.

ConstantineXI on April 9, 2014 at 6:21 PM

The blacks elect the loudest, stupidest and most corrupt from among them. It’s part of the culture of no responsibility they engender towards their community. Easier to blame whitey. The same whitey Jay Z & friends consider a devah, an ‘errant child’.

Coming from a member of a party currently calling law-abiding businessmen ‘un-American,’ Cummings can f’off. Talk about ‘McCarthyism.’ BTW, read Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America’s Enemies by M Stanton Evans and then get back to me. The Left can’t hide behind the Iron Curtain any longer. The Venona Papers, the Stasi documents, the Russian archives prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that McCarthy was more right than wrong.

I betcha Cummings thinks SENATOR McCarthy ran HUAC, too. **eyeroll**

And, I betcha that he doesn’t know that one of the original ‘founders’ of HUAC, Rep Samuel Dickstein (D-NY) WAS a reliable agent for the Soviets for years.

The “Koch brothers”—who run Koch Industries, the Kansas-based firm that Forbes ranks as the second-largest private company in the United States—went unmentioned on the House and Senate floors between February 1998 and December 2010.

But in March 2014, their names were called out 79 times—and no one cited them more than Reid. Already, the Koch brothers have been name-dropped 38 times in April. [...]

The volume of the Democrats’ Koch brothers messaging is cranked so high that its rise rivals congressional mentions of Russian President Vladimir Putin, even amid the incursion into Crimea and the international standoff over Ukraine. In fact, so far in April, Sunlight’s data show that “Koch brothers” has been said more than “Vladimir Putin.”

Just add it to the pile of people Holder will never prosecute. When members of the government act with impunity because they know they will never be prosecuted, when the chief prosecutor of the government refuses to prosecute those who share his political party, There is no rule of law anymore. There is no republic.

My partner and I plumbed his office building when it was built, when we were done, he straight up refused to pay. He screwed all of the subcontractors who worked on the building the same way.

oscarwilde on April 9, 2014 at 6:33 PM

Subcontractors? Do you mean you contracted with someone other than Mr. Issa? And I would assume you went to court over the matter. What happened. Before you answer, he was MY congressman as well, and I am familiar with the griping about his office. But please explain the ‘corruption’, Oscar. We are really interested…

Subcontractors? Do you mean you contracted with someone other than Mr. Issa? And I would assume you went to court over the matter. What happened. Before you answer, he was MY congressman as well, and I am familiar with the griping about his office. But please explain the ‘corruption’, Oscar. We are really interested…

bimmcorp on April 9, 2014 at 6:49 PM

We contracted directly with Issa, we were Subcontractors in that we were not employes of the firm that built the building. Issa had a huge disagreement with them and fired them before the building was complete.

As for the corruption, no, you really aren’t interested, you are full of shiite…

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You gotta be kidding!
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We actually have been asking Holder and his lackeys for reasons why they have been withholding information and guess what? Executive privilege or foreign relations or some such BS. You know, all those reasons why you and your ilk kept berating the Bush administration while refusing to castigate the Øbama “administration” (otherwise known as the “ship of thugs”)..
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Jackass.

I am forced to conclude that Issa is not really interested in “getting to the bottom of this”. He likes grandstanding for a few hours every 3-4 months, but has no intention of finding wrongdoing in this or any other case.

At this point, he is just as guilty as the IRS in illegally harassing the 501cs. His determination to drag this out and never find punishable behavior that is obvious to everyone, makes him part of the problem; not the solution. I see no other way to interpret his actions.

Nothing will happen to Cummings or Holder or Lerner or Schulman …..

This reminds me of big time wrastlin’ when Greg the hammer Valentine pulled brass knuckles out of his shorts and clocked Ric Flair. Everyone saw it. But somehow, the referee (Issa) happened to look away and miss the cheating. The entire arena was screaming bloody murder. The TV audience was shouting at the television. The ref just shrugged and proceeded to count Ric Flair out.

I’m sure you do oppose it, since McCarthy’s investigations were incredible effective at finding what it was looking for (communists working in sensitive areas of the federal government). I’m sure you oppose Issa finding what he’s looking for since it seems as if your office is guilty of wrongdoing.

Erika, I think one sentence in defense of McCarthy would have been appropriate. Maybe an update?

If you have nothing to hide and if you have done nothing criminal,
why TF are you so scared of this Oversight Committee jackazz ? How does it matter if this committee is imaged after McCarthy or Nuremberg trials ?

I’m sure you do oppose it, since McCarthy’s investigations were incredible effective at finding what it was looking for (communists working in sensitive areas of the federal government). I’m sure you oppose Issa finding what he’s looking for since it seems as if your office is guilty of wrongdoing.

Erika, I think one sentence in defense of McCarthy would have been appropriate. Maybe an update?

blink on April 9, 2014 at 7:00 PM

McCarthy’s head would be exploding if he were alive today to see the number of Communists, along with Marxists and Socialists, infesting ALL 3 branches of the Federal Government.

The dirty little secret is that McCarthy was absolutely right in his concern, because today, we’re living it.

This is why you should avoid personal attacks if you can. Issa who is not exactly, “Mr. Aggressive”, and lets face not exactly, “Mr. Tea Party”, is now motivated not by party or ideology, but personally. This should put an end to all the rumors, if true, that he would drag his feat on this, because he was no fan of the Tea Party.